Untitled - Sarna.net

AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
020104/ 020168
Primary Editor:
Paul L. “The Wolf”
Emerson
Articles and
Interviews: Paul L.
“The Wolf” Emerson
Art and Images:
Cover: Pawel
Czarnecki
Other: Pawel
Czarnecki(http://www
.clanwolf
.ws/graphics/pawel)
Page 2,
“Weake
n Up
the
Defense
” Artist Logo.
Page 14, MekTek
Mek Pak Stalker.
Page 29, Marauder
Hunting, Sriram
Thodla, 1996.
Various on-line and
unknown sources
(please see
disclaimers in the
submissions section
if there is a problem)
This publication is a
FREE, completely
gratis, work of the
BattleTech
Community and
Armageddon
Unlimited, Wolf
Family Mercenary
Units, LLC. Any
expressions or
opinions contained
herein are the sole
expressions and
opinions of the
authors of the
various articles and
not, necessarily,
those of the
producers of this EZine.
Volume I, Issue 3
December, 2003 - February, 2004/02.01.68
Table of Contents
02
Opening Volley
03
The GrapeVine
05
BattleROMs
New Blood – The Birth and Life of David Wolf, the second
05
06
commander of the Wolf Family Mercenary Units, LLC, and hailed
as the greatest commander the unit ever had.
Equal Opportunity Destroyers – Under Colonel David Wolf’s
command, the WFMU, LLC, became so well known and steeped in
heroism and honor that the unit became rough equals to the more
famous mercenary units. Also, during this time, EOD continued to
grow to three times the size David’s father had ever envisioned,
let alone hoped for.
07
07
07
11
16
20
20
Bio-Feedback
Intel.
23
25
25
27
28
Event Calendar
Parting Shot
New Submissions Guide
Advertisements
Unit/Resource Listings
The Mech WarFare League for MegaMek
IS3025(aka – Project: Jenner)
Updated Operations Manual for Armageddon Unlimited
BattleTales
“Dragon vs. PPC” Part 1 – The now aging Jeremiah Wolf is
set for a mission on Fellanin II versus a Draconis Combine
th
Training Cadre; unfortunately, it’s only as backup to the 77
Tactical Mech Battalion.
BattleTech, MechWarrior, MechWarrior Dark Age, WizKids Games LLC, Fantasy Productions,
Cyberlore, and any other entities, writers and/or artists involved with the vast BattleTech and
MechWarrior franchises are ©® same. Nothing contained herein is designed to challenge any
copyrights or registered trademarks of said companies. All rights reserved. Used without
permission.
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
OPENING VOLLEY
020104/ 020168
Welcome to the third issue of
Argent Fire magazine. This is a
kind of a tough endeavor to
pursue time after time, but I
would hope all of you are getting
something good out of this; it’s only
worth it if you are. I know it’s fun to
share the BattleTech community, as a
whole, with the rest of the community. All
too often we get ourselves stuck in a single
league or a single game and are unable to find
our way out of it; I’m not saying that is,
necessarily, a bad thing, but I am saying it’s a
good idea to keep your options open. After all,
there are dozens of excellent ideas for
MODs of BattleTech and improvements to
the existing computer games, and it would be
a shame to miss out on something you might
really enjoy.
Well, this section is where we’re
supposed to face issues concerning this E-Zine
as well as addressing future possibilities for the
BattleTech community. So, let me start with a
concern I’ve been met with by a few people,
including myself. The formatting of the E-Zine’s
first two issues was not conducive to being able
to read them on-line, let alone printing them. There was no judicious use of white space
whatsoever and, I’ll admit, it was the wrong approach to making an E-Zine happen.
Hence, I have gone back and completely reformatted the first two copies of AF to
resemble this one, and future issues, more. There is plenty of white space on the
margins for your enjoyment, and there are a few more pics to go in here as well. I am
going to attempt to learn how to make Publisher work right for me, and then I’ll be able to
put in sweet little margin notes and middle-page close-ups, then this E-Zine will be in the
right shape, I think. However, for the time being, this format should suffice just fine.
Anyway, check out the first two issues again, you might like to read them fresh for the
second time. ϑ
Next comes the formatting of this E-Zine itself. Boy, I could sure use some
decent border graphics for the top, bottom and sides, perhaps something easy to modify
for dates and issue name so it might be used again in other issues of this E-Zine. As
well, I could use some BattleTech based art in general, and of course, as many articles
as you folks would like to crank out. Wouldn’t hurt my feelings to not have to do all of the
writing for each issue. Perhaps some good page backgrounds I can place in as
watermarks might be helpful for those pages with far too much white space but aren’t
really designed to support more than exists at present.
Alright, the submission guidelines for this E-Zine are changing as well, hopefully
for the better, and you can find those guidelines at the back of this E-Zine, just before the
standard advertisements and page links. Speaking of page links, if you don’t find yours
there, feel free to email it to [email protected] and we’ll get it, put it in the next
issue. On top of the submission guidelines, the E-Zine itself is going to change to
become more free-form, less rigid; oh, the familiar articles are going to be there as they
have been, and will likely stay in following issues. However, we will be fitting articles in
between the standard articles you receive each issue, and it will help to break up the
regular view of the E-Zine, we hope.
Now, folks, this E-Zine is your E-Zine, it’s your information about the BattleTech
community, and it’s your way to communicate with others in the BattleTech community as
well, especially concerning the status of your MOD, your unit, or if you’re looking for
players or a group to game with in your local area. Bring on the information, and let us
sort it out. The more information I get, though, the more help I’m going to need. By
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
020104/ 020168
writing your article, piece of news, or war story, in a text file with proper spelling and
formatting, you can help me to get it into the E-Zine quickly. Go on, there’s nothing
wrong with the judicious use of your spell-checker, folks; go on, no one’s looking. ϑ
Alright, onto the future of this E-Zine and the BattleTech universe. As articles
come in to AF the magazine will feature them and get larger and/or be produced more
often; all of that is up to you, folks. Regardless, I need help to keep this thing running
now. I don’t want money, just time and articles, and it doesn’t have to come from any
one person; a crew would be best. If you have an article, a piece of art or a story you
would like to see featured here, please do?
As for the future of the BattleTech universe and things taking place in this issue of
AF, just take a look at the MODs that are around. I can only speak for myself in this
when I say that IS3025, Inner Sphere Wars, and the Mech War Fare League look to be
smokin’. Yes, the MODs and the league may be some time in coming, but they are being
developed at a relatively steady pace, and I think we’ll be able to expect something very
soon concerning them. As for the Mech War Fare League and IS 3025, I have asked for
interviews from the head admins of those organizations to share some things about them
that may keep the interest of our BattleTech Community on its toes. Hopefully I will be
able to publish them in this issue of Argent Fire.
Finally, Argent Fire now has a way to subscribe to receive news about issues,
requests for submissions of articles, art, and stories, and we would like you to sign up
because, more than likely until I get some help, I will advertising this E-Zine every six
months instead of each issue. Now, if I have some help by you subscribing to the Argent
Fire Mailing List, and you tell your friends to check us out and they subscribe, it will selfperpetuate and I won’t have to worry about advertising at all, so I too can enjoy the
various mods in existence. Anyway, if you go to http://www.wolvesau.net/ArgentFire
you’ll see the paragraph at the top explaining what you need to do to subscribe for the EZine. Enjoy, folks.
~The Wolf
THE GRAPEVINE
AU has had its hard times
pretty recently, with the fall of our
most recent command staff to
things beyond anyone’s control and
the loss of a couple of friendships
because of hard to understand, and
harder to implement, concepts.
The concepts themselves aren’t the
impossibility, it is the mountain
which must be climbed in order to
achieve what those concepts mean.
Unfortunately, our old command
staff didn’t have the desire to do
that, so they and most of
Armageddon Unlimited went to form
their own unit. The loss is great,
but not impossible to recover from.
Indeed, we already have a couple
of new members and we’re
rebuilding a little bit at a time.
Armageddon Unlimited
began as a small unit in the
BattleTech universe and eventually
grew in stature and Dragoons
Rating, although that was over the
course of nearly fifteen years of
real time. Now, especially with the advent of play on the internet, Armageddon Unlimited
is going through growing pains again. Just like the original unit, we will succeed beyond
anyone’s dreams and grow to be a popular portion of the community, just as it begins to
really die out, I’m sure, hehe.
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AR GENT F I R E
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020104/ 020168
Members of Armageddon Unlimited will be participating in the Mech War Fare
League under the guise of House Kurita for MegaMek. We already have more members
for the DC side of the house than we do for basic AU; that’s okay, as long as we can play
it doesn’t matter. While AU has been on hiatus, in fact, I have been working on other
projects such as my Aliens play by email game and all of the requisite tech that goes with
it, and I have been designing a new RPG based in an alternate BattleTech future with
anthropomorphics and Robotech-style Mecha based on BattleTech premises. I think it
might be pretty good, but it’s going to take a while to get the whole thing down. With the
hiatus, as well, much of the unit, such as it is, has been busy with their own projects and
none of the stories on our forum have advanced. One of these days I’ll get an
opportunity to liven them up again, but it may not be for some time coming.
IS3025 is working very hard to get their first beta-testing ready for us finicky
BattleTech community consumers to eat it up, but it may yet be a few months in coming.
Patience, grasshopper, it’ll come. Inner Sphere Wars, despite recent site issues related
to server and forum problems, as well as two people dropping out of sight on them –
thereby leaving much of the programming of the game to be re-done, it would seem the
ISW community is still thriving and chomping at the bit for the open beta gladiatorial and
lance combat to be released for testing sometime in the near future. I don’t give any time
limits here because the admins and designers themselves are trying to keep from being
kicked in the pants for giving a time and not being able to meet their own deadline.
Therefore, I am not interested in giving them any further problems by trying to squeeze
anything more than a general timeline out of them. Were I to do that I would, perhaps,
succeed in making one of their heads explode due to all the programming issues they’re
trying to meet as it is, as well as a rampant community dying to play some real, or as
close to real as possible, BattleTech. Soon, my children, soon.
BattleCorps.com, it would appear, has gone Tango Uniform on us. I have tried
multiple times to get an answer from them concerning the community of BattleTech
writers, to no avail. Who knows, perhaps Argent Fire will start a fiction section where we
can post your stories and, perhaps, we can eventually start paying for those stories as
well. No author gets rich overnight, I should know, but getting published does happen
and is not as impossible as everyone would make you believe. I’ll try and keep you
updated on any further news, if there will ever be any, on BattleCorps.com and we’ll see
what it will take to get some more interested from the community to actually do this thing.
Alright, for my final piece of news I have a sort of introduction for you. The folks
at MECH.US asked me to post an ad for them, which I will be all too happy to do.
However, as you know how things go with PDF files, there are no direct links here; so,
you can probably check them out at http://www.mech.us. The web site is looking very
professional, and I think this might be a good league, so check it out.
~The Wolf
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AR GENT F I R E
BATTLEROMs
Volume I , I ssue 3
020104/ 020168
In the first issue of AF we shared with you the beginnings of the Wolf Family
Mercenary Units, LLC, then known as Wolf’s Cavaliers. They began as a small
mercenary unit, comprised of family and friends, both regular and military service family
and friends. In fact, it’s funny how often those you serve with become some of your best
friends, and then morph into family as well. It’s that kind of camaraderie that keeps
individuals alive on the battlefields and in tense work situations as well. This issue’s
history deals with my favorite MechWarrior character of all time, and the one I spent the
most time developing and playing with in the BattleTech universe: David Montgomery
Wolf. Anyway, without further adieu, here’s the next section of the Wolf History.
New Blood
David Montgomery Wolf was born on the
planet Ozawa on March 17, 2988 where his father
rd
was serving with the 3 Crucis Lancers. He was
a military brat from the get go and a troublemaker
when possible. Showing an unusual aptitude
towards anything BattleMech related Jeremiah
Wolf sent his son to the New Avalon Military
Academy from September 3007 to May 3011,
where he displayed great proficiency in almost all
of his studies, graduating with honors. Instead of
David having to serve a standard four-year
contract in the AFFS(he would have gone to the
1st Crucis Lancers) after training at NAMA,
Jeremiah Wolf offered the AFFS something it
could not refuse in exchange for his son. A fouryear cut-rate contract which placed Wolf's
Cavaliers, along with David's newly formed Red
Death Squadron, under control of the 77th
Tactical 'Mech Battalion on Hamal, was signed.
After grueling fighting against Marik's 8th
Schützenschnuren on Fallanin II from June 14,
3012 to August 3, 3013, in which Wolf's Cavaliers
lost more than they gained(two full companies
and two lances of Red Death Squadron), Prince Davion cut the contract and restored a
great deal of the unit to operational status(one company and one lance), releasing them
to recover on Rochester, again granting the Barony of the planet to Jeremiah Wolf, which
he almost immediately sold for rights to Waterworld.
Almost immediately upon arriving to the new world his father had just purchased
for the unit, named Waterworld, on December 26, 3013, David found a woman named
Lisa Kahl Digby, daughter of Duke Gumma Digby, and married her, producing Stephanie
Kahl Wolf on October 5, 3014. From then until early 3017, Wolf's Caval
iers and RDS
moved to, and helped establish, Waterworld.
From mid-3017 through mid-3021, Wolf's Cavaliers were assigned to
garrison/staging duty on Crossing. In December of 3021 David's mother, Mercedes, was
involved in and killed by an automobile accident. Jeremiah Wolf returned early from
Crossing to pay homage to his wife's memory and to grieve.
For the most part from then on contracts were held against the Draconis
Combine, which included everything from intelligence gathering to recons, raids,
planetary assaults and major operations backed by House Davion. Because of the highly
lucrative nature of these contracts for Wolf's Cavaliers(almost an additional regiment's
worth of DCMS 'mech salvage), David made every effort to recruit, train and equip new
'MechWarriors from training academies all over the Inner Sphere.
After six months of rebuilding force strength, David and Jeremiah Wolf together
negotiated a contract with House Davion for skirmishes to be run against the Capellan
Confederation. During a small reconnaissance skirmish against the Death Commandos
on 19 May 3023, the powerplant in Jeremiah Wolf's BattleMaster gave way to a
mysterious attack and exploded, instantly vaporizing him. The remains of his
BattleMaster were interred on Rochester in late 3023; Mercedes Wolf's remains were
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AR GENT F I R E
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exhumed on Waterworld and buried on Rochester in the BattleMaster's structure with the
remains of her husband.
With the death of his mother, and two years later his father, David was thrust into
the Colonel's seat, coming through the long tunnel of troubles that plagued him and the
unit and performing admirably despite criticism from even the most mediocre mercenary
units.
Equal Opportunity Destroyers
The unit was eventually renamed Equal Opportunity
Destroyers and the Red Death Squadron placed as the
3
units new C (Command, Control, and Communications)
center. Immediately, a new contract was negotiated for the
unit to perform picket duty on 12 worlds within the Draconis
March for five years. By the time the rotation contract in the
Draconis March was completed and the EOD returned to
Waterworld, Stephanie Wolf had been training for a year and
was preparing for college, not possessing the desire to pilot
BattleMechs, despite however good she was at it. David Wolf
paid for correspondence courses from the New Avalon Institute of
Science during that time and, by the end of only two and a half
years, Stephanie had a Bachelors of Science in Myomer Physics.
Simply being fascinated with the structure and musculature used in the
brilliant design that was the almighty BattleMech kindled a small desire for
Stephanie to pilot a 'Mech, eventually turning it into a fire.
Stephanie was asked to take charge of a unit, as David had been, and she redesignated that unit the Shadow Blade. Immediately, Stephanie Wolf began training
them as a covert operations team, relying on training provided in holo's from Outreach for
guidance.
In November 3034, David had negotiated a new contract for EOD and Shadow Blade
which would put the newly trained unit to the test. Over the course of the next year EOD
skulked about from world to world, keeping their presence hidden, within the borders of
the Free World's League, distracting the forces of the Free Worlds League Military while
raids were conducted on the very worlds EOD had pulled forces from. The assassination
of Janos Marik in June 3035 was immediate cause to be called back to Davion space.
The contract was considered fulfilled, EOD paid in full, and transported back to
Waterworld.
EOD and Shadow Blade took no official contracts between the end of 3035 and
the beginning of the War of 3039, during which time David accepted a top secret
assignment to invade Huan and recapture it for the Federated Suns. The contract was
actually negotiated in July 3038, and executed by February 3039.
The history of Armageddon Unlimited is an interesting and fast one; however,
there is history outside the game as well, involving me and how I cared for every tiny
detail of the unit, right down to naming individual support personnel for future stories to
be written. Unfortunately, many of the stories I wrote as a young man were lost due to
several moves taking place, not the least of which was my entry into the Army and
assignment to Germany. I stored my stuff, as most young soldiers do, and it was gone by
the time I returned home. However, many of the stories I took with me survived and will
be written in future issues of AF, or the first AF story anthology, or for novels I intend to
have produced concerning BattleTech and Armageddon Unlimited in the future.
Many of you in the BattleTech community have also put a great deal of time and
effort into your individual units, original ones which outstrip, at least for history and detail
if not legitimacy, any of the units designed for the BattleTech history as produced by
FASA since 1982 and continued by Fantasy Productions for Classic BattleTech and
through WizKids, LLC in these recent years since FASA’s demise. Share ‘em, put ‘em
here, and let others read about the hard work you’ve put forward. I will be more than
happy to share this space with you, on one prerequisite: your unit’s history MUST be
research-proof authentic and fit into the BattleTech universe where it would be logical to
have them. Thanks for letting me see your cards; I look forward to reading them.
~The Wolf
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
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BIO-FEEDBACK
It’s a sad thing when the community won’t speak up about the
things that are happening within the community. Come on,
folks, what are you excited about, what would you
like to see done, where are you playing
and what’s so great about it? There are
a million questions to be asked and a
million things to talk about, so bring ‘em
on.
Now, for those of you
wondering where my letters are, take
a look at the Opening Volley and
you’ll see ‘em there. If you
have a complaint or take
issue with anything I’ve
said anywhere in this EZine at any time, feel free
to address it with me, take
me to task on it. I swear I don’t bite…
hard ϑ . One man spoke up in Issue 2 about
something which was said in Issue 1 of AF, and he
had absolutely the right idea. Give us the what-for, let us know what’s going on in the
community, recommend articles and interviews to be written, things you would like to see
in the community. Bring it, folks, let’s see it!!!
~The Wolf
INTEL.
This month we have a couple of real treats with leagues which the BattleTech community
is working to put together. The first is the Mech Warfare League for MegaMek, which you may
find at http://www.mmleague.com, and is headed by Freakboy; he’s a nice individual who is
working very hard to put this new league together. I have a feeling this league has a great future,
especially among older table-top Tech players. After that is an interview with RAM021 of
IS3025/Project Jenner fame, who will give us a run-down on how the game, and the league, are
being designed best with BattleTech intent and players in mind. Finally, take a look over some of
the adjusted rules and regulations of my own unit, Armageddon Unlimited and drop us a line at
[email protected] to let us know what you think about anything in this E-Zine.
The Mech Warfare League
MegaMek
This first interview takes place with Freakboy, an avid BattleTech and MegaMek fan, and
someone working to improve the current state of the BattleTech community. As usual, Argent
Fire’s comments will be as follows – AF: comment or question? and Freakboy’s answers will be
st
listed as MWFL: comment or answer. Check out the rules for the 1 Martial Olympiad at the
Mech Warfare League forums; see if you want to join a unit and/or play? Let’s get started…
AF: Would you care to explain some things about yourself and the MWFL team? What
kind of experience do you have with BattleTech in general, and on-line BattleTech games
specifically?
MWFL: To begin with, at this point most of the admin team is part time. I am really lucky
to have a dedicated player base that is willing to give the time to build this League up, while at the
same time organizing their factions/clans. Everyone has their own special skill and is more than
willing to help out.
I really started backwards with BT than most people. My first BT experience was MW2
when it came out for computer but [I] never really made the connection that the storyline was from
BT. It wasn’t until I spotted one of the Twilight of the Clans books in the library that I realized that
it went deeper. Starting with Grave Covenant, I eventually got more and more into the BT
storyline. I read a lot of things on Patrick’s BT Archive and grew more and more interested.
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
When I got MechWarrior 4 in
January of 2003 I started playing online for
the first time ever. I was lucky enough to fall
in with a good Clan on Game Spy Arcade,
Clan Jade Falcon. They were very into the
storyline, much more so than most of the
other clans there. Somewhere along the line
one of our members found MegaMek and
invited to show me how to play. He stomped
me a lot but eventually I started winning.
When we realized that we were playing MM
just as much as MW4, one of the Falcons,
Mohawk, suggested that a League for
MegaMek would be a cool idea.
The rest is really history. We had
our ups and downs and side tracks but we
eventually came to where we are today.
020104/ 020168
AF: What made you want to build
MWFL (Mech Warfare League for our
readers)?
MWFL: I wanted to at first have a
ladder situation where different Clans would
pride themselves on having enough wins.
My ideas got bigger and bigger. Eventually I
thought “Why not have a planetary campaign
like some of the nicer MW4 Leagues?” I
didn’t see why not and went for it.
AF: About how much time are you
able to put into this each week? How many
man-hours would you say you and your team, on average, put into the game?
MWFL: I work on this every day. Many others also help out with what are sometimes
very difficult or tedious tasks. Whenever we see something that needs to be done we do it.
There are some very large tasks, but our people are cheerfully attacking and finishing them. I’m
really lucky to have such dedicated helpers.
AF: About the 1st Martial Olympiad... Why are you putting that on?
Where do you think you would put your money if you were betting on this? Why only 1 person
per unit?
MWFL: I’m putting it on to keep people interested in MWFL while we are building up,
plain and simple. It gives the factions something to do while we are preparing the massive
amount of things needed to run the full campaign. I got this idea from the SLDF Martial Olympiad
mentioned in my FM: Updates. I’m only doing one person per unit to keep the odds somewhere
near even. Some factions have more people than others so it will be based on the skill of their
best player, not numerical superiority. I know that the Lyrans only have one person at the
moment (apparently some people don’t quite realize that Katherine isn’t in the picture anymore),
but the Falcons have 4-5, and the Wolves 10 or so.
If I had to bet on someone, I’d say that Victor Barone is going to get the Merc
Independent sponsorship and smoke everyone else, unless everyone else gangs up on him first.
AF: What kind of help could you use to get this league up and running, as far as
programming and design go?
MWFL: My biggest need right now is web designers, especially those with PHP/MySQL
experience. I have stopgap systems in place but I really need someone to help code the Bank,
Units, and Map. Preferably several people, since the map alone is a large project, even though
we already have all the coordinates for all the planets.
We can do this without coders, but it will take longer for transactions to take place, with
money, movement, wins, etc.
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AF: What kind of play are we to expect from this game? What size of battles will there
be? What will the tonnage and/or Battle Value limitations be?
MWFL: Forces will be designed like the actual forces in BT. This means a combination of
mechs, tanks, and infantry. Likewise there will be a mix of light, medium, heavy, and assault
mechs. The battles will involve large numbers of forces, but will be scaled down to many
individual battles of equal forces until one side runs out of mechs, or decides to cut their losses
and retreat.
For those who don’t like to fight over a long period of time, one company or lance sized
battle can determine the fate of the rest of the regiment as it comes to losses.
Likewise we are having a simple and accurate salvage system entering its beta phase.
AF: Why did you choose to use MegaMek for this league?
MWFL: I chose it because it’s a free game, can be played on a wide range of computers,
and the people who play it generally are more mature than people on flashier games. Cheating is
totally unheard of, and unsportsmanlike behavior is very rare. The community is also small,
everyone knows everyone else in it.
AF: How BattleTech are you designing this league to be? Will we have a realistic
economy based on C-Bills? Or resources? Finally, will the various House Bills be allowed?
MWFL: The economy will be as realistic as the programming that we are able to put on
the site will allow it. This is proportional to the expertise of the people who help us.
At the very minimum, each house will get a certain number of C-Bills per world they own.
This money can be used to buy generic regiments of greater or lesser quality. Every mech in the
game will be given a rating (ABCD and F for the IS, and Front Line and Second Line for the
Clans). Likewise each regiment will have a rating. The rating for the mechs and the rating for the
regiment have to match up in a game.
AF: Will custom mercenary units be allowed in this league, or will you restrict the unit
availability in MWFL to FASA-Standard units?
MWFL: Custom units will be allowed. However we have a very strict storyline
requirement. Every part of the units history must be logical and constant with the main
BattleTech storyline. Also it must be somewhat probable. Star League caches with more than a
company’s worth of mechs probably isn’t going to fly. Most merc units start out with a very few
mechs and work their way up.
We encourage people to come up with roles for themselves in the universe, but we don’t
want that universe ruined.
AF: What year is MWFL supposed to begin in and why? What made you choose this
particular year to begin your game in over any other year or series of years?
MWFL: We will have a launch date of 3080. This gives the Lyran Alliance and the
Federated Suns enough time to recover from the FedCom civil war and allow us to make certain
changes to the storyline.
Some people wanted a 3025 storyline with the Clans deciding when to invade. We
decided against this however because of technology concerns (if the clans invade in 3027 the IS
will be very hard pressed to repel them) and because of our respect and love for the storyline that
has already made this universe so rich and deep.
AF: I am an avid participant in the MWFL forum, and I have noticed there are certain
issues with the BattleTech story-line which are going to be modified or deleted to better support
the league. Would you care to explain some of the changes which are taking place, or are most
likely to take place, and why the changes are being made?
MWFL: The biggest change will be the removal of the Word of Blake Jihad and the
Republic of the Sphere. This allows us to prepare for a free for all war that will most likely take
place with the Start Date.
We are currently hammering out the details as to how the WoB fell, but we will make it as
believable and logical as possible, considering the run up to it in the FM: Updates.
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AF: What manner of positions within the MWFL's structure are available to get into, and
what qualifications would you ask from people who are interested in filling any of those positions?
MWFL: If you are willing to help we have a position. We need moderators, campaign
clerks (to keep track of everything), researchers, and data entry people. There are so many ways
people can help it can not be listed.
If someone is willing to help there is something for them to do.
AF: Is MWFL geared toward any particular type of MegaMek player, such as the
BattleTech old timers, or is this league open to anyone?
MWFL: The League is open to anyone who is interested in really getting into the
storyline. I’ve had numerous inquires from MechWarrior 4 players who want to branch out a little
into this, evidently it’s a hobby among some of the MW4 Clans.
AF: Which factions do you need in order for the league to truly
begin? Is there anything else keeping the league from starting at this
point that our readership may be able to remedy?
MWFL: To start we need all the Inner Sphere houses
and Clans in the IS. At first we will only do the Inner Sphere.
Once we have that we can start. Periphery States
are next on the list. If enough people are interested
we will bring in the Home Clans. We don’t want to
end up like the Solaris 7 League and have more
factions than people.
The biggest hurdle as I mentioned before,
is building the infrastructure to support what we are
planning on doing.
AF: Do you have a tentative, or even a solid,
starting date for the league? What about a release
of any primary software for testing or playing?
MWFL: Our start date is really up in the air at
this point. We will start when we are ready. I’m
hoping on starting in a month or two however.
Because everything is web based, no downloading
will be necessary, except for the actual game.
AF: What manner of mapping will you have to
represent the modified Inner Sphere for MWFL? How
will movement on that map work?
MWFL: How movement works is very
dependent on what the map looks like when it is done.
We have some really talented people working on it, but
there are limits to their abilities. If we can get a java
map to work, movement of forces will take place
in either the traditional point to point in an
inhabited system or a strait line course
from the target to the destination
(under the assumption that it is
traveling through uninhabited systems).
Our backup system is a GIF image of the whole IS that would
be manually updated and movement would be calculated. This would NOT be as massive as it
sounds, considering the estimated number of battles per week is only 4 or 5 at the very most at
first, but it would have a lag time while someone updated the map. If we can get an auto updated
system in place, we could make the losses show up immediately.
AF: Are you having to make any sacrifices of the lore or the rules of the BattleTech
universe in order to make this league work right? If so, please explain why?
MWFL: One of our biggest goals was to keep the depth of the BT universe in one piece.
The main change we will be making is more along the lines of a reversal to what it used to be.
The League Administration fills the role of ComStar, and because of this ComStar will most likely
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have a much larger and powerful presence than it does in 3067. Every change we make will be
backed up by a very thorough and well thought out storyline, to do less would go against the spirit
of what we are trying to do.
Whatever omissions and changes we make will be temporary and only for practical
reasons. For example, it was recently decided to cut the home clans out of the picture. We
simply had too many clans to fill. However we already have a Clan Ice Hellion, whose warriors
were among our first members. Our solution to it was just to modify the Dark Age/Jihad
storyline. In it Clan Hells Horses invades part of the Wolf and Falcon OZ. We are simply
replacing the Horses with the Hellions and writing a new storyline to justify it.
AF: Will mercenary units be allowed in MWFL? What capacity will they fit into? How
much will mercenaries operate by published rules? What protections will they have from greedy
employers?
MWFL: Mercenaries will most definitely be allowed in the MWFL. We have two basic
types already mapped out, Mercenary Units and Mercenary Independent. Mercenary Units are
much like factions in that they have forces that they deploy to defeat other forces, but they have
more than one person in them.
Mercenary Independents have a much broader role. They can command forces, either of
their own or of their employers, but they have only one member. This is really good for the
control freaks/loners who don’t want to work with others as much.
AF: Is there anything not covered in this interview you would like to add? Anything you
would like to say, a shameless plug for the league perhaps, to make MWFL sound better to those
who may not understand what your league is all about?
MWFL: I just want to emphasize that all of our plans are extremely flexible, if we get
someone with, for example, extensive PHP experience we can expand our ideas to do much,
much more. Also if someone comes in with a great idea, we are more than willing to use it.
The MWFL will be what its members make it.
I have been in contact with Freakboy a lot recently, and there is, indeed, much to be
done. Come on and volunteer your time, bring your expertise in whatever you do, and let’s help
Freakboy and the rest of the team build this universe to be by players for players. There seems
to be a grass roots movement to return, as quickly and accurately as current technology and
programming will allow us to, to the BattleTech drawing board again. I, for one, would really
enjoy seeing this happen, and I believe that there are more of us who would like to see it happen
than are speaking up. All that is required for BattleTech to die, is for good MechWarriors to do
nothing. Speak up, let your voices be heard, and let’s help build a community unprecedented.
~The Wolf
IS 3025(Ex. – Project: Jenner)
RAM021, one of the Developers of the Inner Sphere 3025 project, has taken
valuable time out of an extremely busy schedule to answer some questions for us
concerning IS3025, which used to be known as Project: Jenner. A small synopsis of the
game is that IS3025 is designed around the concepts of the original BattleTech board
game, while placing you in the drivers seat of a ‘mech in a first person shooter-style
simulation. However, there’s a lot more than meets the eye, here, as you’ll read.
AF) Tell our readers a little something about yourself and each of your team
members, please? What experience do you have with BattleTech and BT-Related games
on the internet?
IS3025) I am a Regular Force Army Officer by trade; developer extraordinaire by
choice. I have been playing Battletech since its release in North America along with all
the various Battletech games over the years. Coming up to nearly 20 years in the
cockpit... Many of the other team members are current or ex-military and have vast
amounts of Battletech experience - both virtual and tabletop.
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AF) Why did you and the programmers and administrators of IS3025 decide to
build this game? Will the release and play of this game cost our readers any money to
purchase the basic game or to play it on-line? If so, what do you intend to charge for
each?
IS3025) We decided to build this game because we want to play it ourselves. We
are all big Battletech fans and want to play the definitive Battletech game - it became
apparent that it was not going to be done by someone else, so here we stand now doing
it ourselves.... Yes - we are a Not-for-Profit company, so while we are not out to profit
from fellow gamers we do require 'help' subsidizing the server cost. How much is still up
in the air - realistically it will depend upon how many people play and how much the
servers and bandwidth costs to support them (simply divide the latter by the former and
that would be rough cost)... This is not my department though.
AF) Why did you select the name IS3025 and, aside from the obvious
connotations represented in the name already, what does it mean to the members of the
IS3025 programming team?
IS3025) Well, funny enough it was suggested and no one submitted a better name
(or any other name for that matter) - essentially it ties in with MPBT3025 which we will
improve upon and IS = Inner Sphere, the setting for the game. Also, IS Games was
selected for the company name and should we do a sequel it is easy to convey continuity
with IS3050 for example.
AF) This used to be known as Project Jenner; why change the name to IS3025?
IS3025) Yes, PJ was the 'co
d ename' for the reverse engineering of EA's
MPBT3025 Server - while not a failure, it did demonstrate
that it would be easier to start from scratch. This would
also allow us to improve upon the game
rather than being stuck with what EA
released. Once the decision was made
to start from scratch a name change
seemed to be in order, and that also
dealt with some legality issues.
AF) I am a member of the
IS3025 forum(Redwolf), and I have read
exactly how close to the BattleTech table-top
rules you intend to try and make this game. Why
would you go to such lengths to write a new game
when there are plenty of BattleTech-related games
out there? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to
put down anyone else's league, and I'm equally
certain you're not as well; however, there are
plenty of games out there. What made you
choose to do this game?
IS3025) Because there are
huge differences between Battletech and the
other mech games, and we wish to play
Battletech. Since the game was not going
to be done by someone else, we had to do
it ourselves.
AF) It is very obvious to me that you have
been very inquisitive with the general
public already on your forum in
attempting to address the concerns of
BattleTech players, especially those of the older generation of players, and I'm
grateful. Is IS3025 geared more toward the older BattleTech players, or are
younger players equally welcome?
IS3025) Both are equally welcome, this being a business venture after all, but
certainly since we are all MPBT vets, we know what we are looking for in a MPBT game.
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The functional Chain of Command is probably the biggest distinction between the vets
and the newbs (for lack of a better term) - we had a CofC before and it is essential to
what we wish to accomplish but the newer players do not seem to understand its
importance if for nothing other than organization... Also the inclusion of a Cone of
Destruction firing model rather than the traditional Pin-Point Accuracy many are used to
will make the game more realistic and challenging.
AF) What is the average amount of time you put into coding this game each
week? About how many man-hours would you estimate go into the construction of this
game each week from the entire coding team of IS3025?
IS3025) First, I am not a coder myself, so effectively my coding hours/week is
nearly zero (nearly because I do submit some mathematical formulae for the Cone of
Destruction, Heat Dissipation, etc). On the development side, I personally put in easily
more than 20hrs a week - as do the other Devs; the coders are also extremely busy,
although I would hesitate to speculate on how much time they actually spend coding...
remember this is a volunteer project.
AF) I understand you are using the torgue engine for IS3025 due to the ease of
use and playability of the game; is this correct? Are there any other reasons you've
chosen to use this engine for programming the game?
IS3025) Yes, we are using the Torque Game Engine, although it was simply an
economic decision: while there are other games engines out there and many are even
better (some significantly so) the fact remains that Torque is available for $100 - which
despite its shortcomings still makes it the best bang for the buck and a real steal. Besides
it does in fact do everything we have so far thought of wanting to do...
AF) Why did you choose to program your own game rather than stick with a game
already released to the open market?
IS3025) Simply because none of the games out there are worthy of this honor that and none of them support what we wish to do.
AF) What kind of help could you use to get this game up and running, as far as
programming and design go?
IS3025) Design/concept is essentially done - although we are still open to
comments and ideas so keep them coming. For coding/programming and artistic work we
will take all the help we can get.
AF) What kind of play are we to expect from this game? What size of battles will
there be? What will the tonnage and limitations be? How realistic a feel do you believe
you're all giving to IS302
5?
IS3025) Actual combat game play will be very similar to the previous MPBT
games - that is significantly more realistic than the MechWarrior series. We will support
large battles, currently aiming for Battalion sized (~43v43) - but also hope to eventually
include Regimental sized engagements. However, the problem as we see it is that not
enough people will have systems that will support that level of involvement... so while we
will include larger battles, we suspect that most will limit themselves to Company sized
fights (~13v13)
Currently we lean towards a tonnage limit for the different planets and battles.
Thus if the tonnage limit is set to 100 tons, you could bring an Atlas or 4 Commandos.
IS3025 will be as realistic as we can make it - given that there is difficulty transitioning a
turn-based tabletop miniature game to a real time FPS... The game will feel 'Battletech' if
that is what you mean.
AF) How BattleTech are you designing this game to be? Will we have a realistic
economy based on C-Bills? Or resources? Finally, will the various House Bills be
allowed?
I S3025) Complete and utterly - if it is in the rules or canon, it will (to the best of our
ability) be in the game. T here will be an economy based around the almighty C-Bill; although we
do not know if we will include the various House bills, the general consensus is that we will not.
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AF) Will custom mercenary units be allowed in this game, or will you restrict the
unit availability in IS3025 to FASA-Standard units? What capacity will they fill? How
much will mercenaries operate by published rules? What protections will they have from
greedy employers?
IS3025) Custom mercenary units will be supported, and they will be free to fill
whatever capacity they wish. Mercs will be able to exchange their services for money but the contract process will most likely be simplified from some of the more involved
negotiation processes in the rules. They will not have to accept a contract from someone
they do not wish to work for... Make no mistake, the life of a Merc will be hard - no cake
walks here. You either will have the abilities and wherewithal or you are not going to
make it for very long.
AF) What made you choose 3025 to
begin your game in over any other year or series
of years?
IS3025) 3025 has traditionally been the
timeframe for the various MPBT games, and it is
also our favorite Battletech period in general.
Further consider that of the various mech games
currently being played, none of them cover this
time period, allowing us to fill a void. Also, by
starting early we will have the option to advance
the timeline should we choose...
AF) Will you enforce, or heavily
recommend, any kind of specific unit structure
for IS3025, or are you going to allow units to
completely govern themselves how they see fit?
Why would you do things this way?
IS3025) Hard question... Realistically we
have not yet crossed this bridge and the concept
is currently still being debated. We hope to
achieve a balance between ensuring that a Unit
is viable (ie no 1-2 man Units running around)
while at the same time leaving enough flexibility
for the players to administer themselves
properly. It may become a coding issue as well.
AF) What needs to take place in order to
get this league started? Do you have a
tentative, or solid release date for your Alpha
testing, when your Beta is going to come out,
when the game goes gold, or when any special
software will be released to the community?
IS3025) First it is not a league, as that
implies it is similar to the ones out there, which it
is not. It is much closer to a MMOG - MPBT being the first massive multiplayer game
after all. Currently initial Alpha testing is under way but it will 'officially' start 01 February
2004. Our goal is to enter Beta early summer 2004 and progress to Open Beta late
summer (August 2004). What each phase of testing will consist of, and whether any
'portion' will be released to the public is unknown to me at this stage.
AF) Are you coding a map into the game? If so, how user friendly will it be and
what information will it carry? Will it be completely interactive with other sections of the
game? How will movement on that map work?
IS3025) Yes - hopefully it will be fairly user friendly... It should display friendly,
enemy and neutral Houses (relative to your own) as well as where and what the various
levels of the Chain of Command wish you to do. It will form a major portion of the main
screen - obviously it will be inaccessible during combat, and there will be other screens
(Mech Bay, etc) that will take you away from it. Point and click to select destination.
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AF) Are you having to make any sacrifices of the lore or the rules of the
BattleTech universe in order to make this game work right? If so, please explain why?
IS3025) Not really - we are actually quite faithful. In the future some
compromises may be made for game play, but currently the only thing that comes to mind
is that we will include mechs that would technically only be in the prototype stage.
AF) What kind of 'mechs a
r e you putting into the game? What tech level? How
balanced will the 'mech selections be for the game?
IS3025) Every 3025 timeframe mech we can model will eventually make its way
into the game; we will also include Star League (2750) mechs for ComStar use. The vast
majority will be strict level 1 tech, but the Star League mechs will obviously contain some
level 2. As with everything balance will be heavily influenced by mission type - the Atlas
might never lose a fight to a Ostscout, but guess which one is going to be better for that
recon mission... Simply by virtue of having so many different mech chassis and their
numerous variants means that there will not be a single 'best' mech; each will have
something to contribute - if perhaps some contribute more than others.
AF) Is there a specific place our readers can come to see your work, and the
progress you're all making?
IS3025) www.IS3025.com
AF) If someone wanted to donate anything to this effort in the way of time, money,
etc., what would you need and how would they do it?
IS3025) Primarily we could use help coding and modeling - monetary donations
are trickier, due to the nature of the project...
AF) Is there anything you would like to add which has not been covered here to
make your game more appealing to those who haven't been to the IS3025 site, yet?
IS3025) Not really - we believe in this game and hope to see you all around. Currently
Open Beta is scheduled for late summer (Aug 04).
Well, if I may take a moment to throw in some personal opinion(s) as well, I believe in this
game, too. Other mods are good, and every mod has its problems… however, it is my belief that,
out of all the mods in programming right now, this one will do the most and go the farthest. So,
come on folks, pay a visit to the IS3025 web site(http://www.is3025.com) and have a look around.
It will not kill you, and I think you’ll find that the BattleTech community is far and away NOT dead,
and likely won’t be if these guys have their ways for a very long time.
I would like to give a hearty thank you to RAM021 and the rest of the crew at IS3025 for
continuing with this project, and my prayers are heavy to have it completed. On a more serious
note, come and join a unit, help to even out the universe so that, when play actually starts, the
battles will be large and the community will be one. On the other hand, if you’re a twitch jockey
and you really enjoy MechWarrior 4, this game will definitely be an eye opener for you.
Regardless, come and join the rest of us, learn what it is to be BattleTech, and come to enjoy
yourself immensely in a true community of friends. I know I’ve grown a lot since becoming a
member of the IS3025 part of the BattleTech community, so I know you can, too.
~The Wolf
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Updated Operations Manual for Armageddon Unlimited
In Opening Volley, I explained that Armageddon Unlimited
recently had a huge falling out among our people, especially
our command staff. Well, even though I know I haven’t been
able to glean every single lesson which could be learned
from the events of early December, I have been able to
learn quite a few, and I’ve placed them here for you to
look at. First, though, a short explanation of the
items. First, AU –at least me- has a vision and
several goals I would certainly like to see met in
order to put Armageddon Unlimited on top –as
on top as any of the rest of you will let us
be, hehe- and to help re-institute a
system of honorable combat among all
of the various members of the
BattleTech community.
Next is a sort of judicial, almost
Clan-like system for dealing with problems
within AU which the unit CO, yours truly, should
not take care of on his own, but rather should be
taken care of at levels better suited to extreme
contact with other members of the unit, where the
friendships and the camaraderie will help to alleviate
some of the command problems I’ve seen, and had, in the
past. Hey, folks, I’ll admit it, I’m not perfect by any stretch of
the imagination, and I am not interested in being perfect, either.
However, there are other ways in which discipline problems and
command structure problems can be handled instead of me sticking
my grubby paws in absolutely everything.
Finally, there is a new program we’re trying to institute called the MAMA Initiative.
Before you go laughing too hard, MAMA stands for Mercenary Assistance to Military
Authorities, whereby we ‘loan’ our MechWarriors, Mech Commanders, and MegaMek
players to various other units in leagues we’re not presently involved in. That program
will help, I believe, to alleviate some of the boredom which, more often than not, takes
place in large units like AU is designed to be, and it allows our people the freedom to go
and do something other than AU, while leaving them a place to come back to if the need
arises.
Anyway, take a look and see what you think. Might not be a bad idea, and you
might want to implement similar programs in your unit, and that’s all good because it will
help to keep the BattleTech community perpetual. By the way, these and other initiatives
and proposed modes of operations can be found in our Operations Manual at
http://www.wolvesau.net/forms/courses/AUOM_Intro.htm. Enjoy.
Our Goals and Vision: The 20/20 Initiative
Unlike many of the fly-by-night units you see on the net, which are around for as long as 6
months and then no longer exist, Armageddon Unlimited has goals and a vision. Our primary
goal is to bring real honor back to the BattleTech universe, to make it the way it's supposed to be,
rather than a bunch of hoodlum's blowing each other into next week.This is to be a gradual
process and, although we realize this is not something which will happen over night, we also
know that training and corrective action for infractions on the training ground and the battlefield,
MUST be taken now in order to bring that goal about. If we allow players to play dishonorably
now, without any form of corrective action, hoping we will correct the dishonorable action later, we
will end up with nothing but the same rabble you can find in most units currently on the net. If you
want something better than that, this is the place.
Babies learn how to walk by picking themselves up time after time after time and continuing to
work toward moving, all the while bumping into chairs and falling flat for lack of balance.
However, that baby also has to have encouragement to get up and do it again as well as
correction to keep from bumping into the things they keep bumping into which make them fall
down again and again. In Armageddon Unlimited your leaders will strive to encourage you to pick
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yourself up time and again against opponents who seem to constantly take you down because
you are trying to do things more honorably, if not better, than they are. Your leaders will also
correct and guide you to continue to perform honorably, to make it a part of your combat prowess
so you never have to fight, eventually, dishonorably against an opponent again.
Our vision is to see the honorable combat of the BattleTech universe, as seen in MechWarrior
2(all) and MechWarrior 3, restored to the BattleTech Community as a whole. This vision is an
unlikely one and makes our unit an underdog in a world of undisciplined and dishonorable
INDIVIDUALS that are only out for the win themselves, not to aid their team-mates to achieve a
victory for the unit. This vision is impossible to achieve; however, it is also one worthy of more
than due consideration. It is worthy of capturing the hearts and minds of those individuals who
believe they have the intestinal fortitude to make it work despite the odds. It is impossible, but it
will be done if we have the fight individuals working at it.
The Present
As it stands right now we are faced with an impossible task which many people in the current
community believe is no longer achievable. Warfare evolves, they say, and you don't see such
and such army doing such and such thing they did in the 1800s, they say, and they are absolutely
right. However, just as with anything that takes place, the more it changes the more it remains
the same. There are nasty elements in the BattleTech universe right now and they fight with no
honor, litter the battlefields with their own carcasses as well as those of their enemies with little
regard to why the battle is being fought, let alone how they can preserve themselves and their
'mech.Their lust for the win, regardless of what they have to do to achieve it, outweighs their
desire to win rightly or to preserve their units resources.
MechWarrior
MechWarrior 3 is, thus far, the last of the officially produced computer games to allow for a
sense of honor. It was perfect in detail concerning the BattleTech universe, if not perfect in
game-play. MechWarrior 4, however, has completely destroyed anything but the names and
general graphics of what BattleTech is supposed to be, and even her founders have expressed
limited amounts of shame that it bears the BattleTech name.
I have had individuals, admins and unit leaders, tell me that iterations of MechWarrior prior to
MW4 were inescapably flawed and there were too many bugs in them. However, while they were
playing those flawed games they knew what the BattleTech universe, as far as 'mech to 'mech
combat goes, was really about. The speeds, armor and weapon values were correct and the
balance of those games was just fine. In MW4 a Large Laser hit will knock you around in your
cockpit mercilessly to the point where you are unable to fire back on your opponent, and ALL of
the values of the 'mechs are completely wrong, narrowing game play to hitting each other with
clubs instead of finely tuned weapons. Indeed, if MechWarrior 4 is such a great game, why do
people continue to produce add-ons, patches, and X-Packs to "improve" the game? Why do
organizations, such as MekTek, continue to try and find a better balance to the game; no offense
to MekTek, especially for all the important work they have done to try and bring balance to the
game. The simple facts are these:
1) All previous MechWarrior games are no longer supported, and
2) MechWarrior 4 is every bit as unbalanced, and now even more
unrealistic combat-wise, than any previous iteration.
The Future
FASA Interactive and Microsoft announced in March of 2003 that they were halting production
on the next iteration of MechWarrior; however, they also noted that there would be a continuation
of the game line(s) already produced and, for the future, something more comprehensive, better
for the BattleTech universe. One of our goals is to prepare for the time when a game such as
that will be released; we are looking for a cross-pollination between a Strategic, Tactical and
First-Person Shooter interface which will encompass more than just go to planet, kill bad guys,
collect money, move on. Uggh, tuk-tuk! The Commander of an on-line unit, if I don't miss my
guess, will be able to lay instant way-points for their MechWarriors, command larger units of
mixed Player/NPC MechWarriors to accomplish various goals, while sub-MechWarrior
Commanders can guide their troops to accomplish tactical objectives and then be able to switch
over to first-person(and first-person ONLY, please?) to fight the good fight for themselves. With
technology reaching the heights it currently is, those goals should not be hard to accomplish.
However, one note is that we are also looking for a return to the original statistics, or as close as
possible to them, which were taken out to produce MechWarrior 4, a joke game in and of itself.
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MechForce: On-Line Club
Another of our goals is to build a club for the once-vaunted MechForce:
North America, although now we will include all units playing on-line for
any game line produced by FASA Corporation or FASA Interactive, as
well as the various mods currently in production and being readied for
playtesting, such as IS: 3025, Inner Sphere Wars and Battlefield:
2750. This club would rank players from top to bottom based on
their wins and losses, both within their own categories and by
national and world-wide comparison with other players. This club
would be free to the public and available for all to join.
NOTE: If you have read this far and you're not really
interested in becoming a member, then thank you for reading
this far and we wish you well. However, if your curiosity is
piqued, please feel free to read on?
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Councils
War Council
Not all decisions will be made solely by the Command
Staff of the unit, but may be called to War Council if a decision
of the C/S is unjustifiable and/or needs-be discussed/reviewed
by more than the C/S. This council will be made up of all
Officers within Armageddon Unlimited as well as visiting
dignitaries that wish to participate, although their "vote" would
only be used for breaking ties. As well, if something of
administrative or combat nature has gone amiss within the unit a
War Council may be called to resolve the issue. If a matter is
deemed to be Judicial in nature, the Judicial Council will have
authority over the matter. The Judicial Council will be responsible
for determining what is of a Judicial nature, or which may remain in
the War Council. The War Council, if the matter is primarily military
rather than legal, may call for a HALT to the Judicial Council taking over,
in which case the Unit Commanding Officer is responsible for determining
where the matter goes, based on arguments made by one proponent from each
Council. The Unit Commanding Officer, at the conclusion of all arguments of a War Council, will
make a final decision on the welfare of the unit. In respect to the War Council, the C/S will be
required to post military operational readiness and contracting(whether it is simply a proposal or a
final contract) to the members of the War Council.
Judicial Council
All matters of law, including honor rules infractions within the unit as well as on the field of
training or battle, may be called before a Judicial Council review. If an incident is primarily
military in nature, it may come before a War Council instead, for judgment by peers. The Judicial
Council will be made up of the Unit Adjutant/ Liaison, the Unit Executive Officer, Primary Unit
Training Officer In Charge, the Regimental Commanders(3), and the Primary Unit Records Clerk.
The Unit Adjutant/Liaison is appointed Judge for these proceedings and, once all arguments are
heard on a matter, will make a fair and impartial judgment. If the Unit Adjutant/Liaison is unduly
affected by the matter, the Unit Executive Officer will be responsible to judge the matter while the
Unit Adjutant/Liaison will remain on the Judicial Council, and maintain their vote. The Unit
Commanding Officer may attend these proceedings, but has no vote concerning these matters of
law, and may not unduly influence the decision of the Council. Matters of law, right and wrong,
and morality, will be determined based on the rules of Armageddon Unlimited as laid out in these
texts(manuals and handbooks), common decency and morality, and the common sense of the
Residing Judge.
No one is above the rules, and each person should be dealt with through four periods of
discipline for rules infractions. You will see more on this in the Judicial Council section, below in
this page of the Operations Manual. The first period is with your direct supervisor/boss/ lance
leader/company commander(whichever one is most fitting, and directly above you in the food
chain, at the time), and they should endeavor to make known to you what they saw or were,
otherwise, a party to, and aid you in correcting your actions. If you're unable or unwilling to
correct your actions, and you continue to do them openly, then you go to your Battalion
Commander, corrective period two, for an inquiry and possible remedial training and/or other
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disciplinary measures.
The third corrective period is with your Regimental Commander where they will do the same
as the Battalion Commander but may also consider reassigning you to another section in the unit
along with disciplinary measures the same as a Battalion Commander holds. The fourth, and
final, corrective period is a Judiciary Council review where all documented efforts to correct your
problem will be reviewed and they will make a recommendation to perform any of the actions for
a Battalion or Regiment Commander up to recommending your removal from the unit.
If a Judicial Review is unable to solve your problem through any of these means then,
obviously, you'renot a good fit for the unit, and you will be discharged. If you really like it here
and do NOT want to be discharged, you may take the recommendation of ONE of the actions the
Judicial Council tried to get you to take in the first place, and then turn it around and make it work
for you. You can make this unit work for you, or you can make it a place where you're constantly
at odds with the system. That is up to you.
MAMA Initiative
In Armageddon Unlimited we are
not only here to play for ourselves, for
our own unit, but also for other units.
The Mercenary Assistance to Military
Authorities Initiative allows us to hire
our MechWarriors and Mech
Commanders, individually, to units
which need them. Our members are
free to sign up with units in leagues
who need them, to be known under
both the flag of the unit they are
serving in those leagues as well as
that of Armageddon Unlimited. A
MAMA member will wear the uniform
of the unit they are serving in front of
their name, followed by their screen
name and, finally, by _AU(ie GDL_Gimboid_AU). The units we are
most apt to help at this point are:
1) House Kurita(Draconis Combine) - MegaMek in the Mech Warfare
League
2) Waco Rangers(Mercenaries) - Inner Sphere 3025
3) Eridani Light Horse(Mercenaries) - Inner Sphere Wars
Unit members involved in these activities will be honor-bound to follow the precepts of
Armageddon Unlimited first, then the league the unit they are employed by is fighting in and,
finally, by the precepts and rules of the unit they are employed by. One of the goals of
Armageddon Unlimited is to show other units we mean business in fighting honorably and that, if
we have a MechWarrior good enough to do it, they can fight honorably as well, especially if they
train for it.
Anyway, as you can see, controversial as these subjects may be, they are also
necessary for doing something better than just being any podunk unit trying to survive on
the battlefield. Now, for any of you who may take this personally, I challenge you with
two things: 1) Are you that way?, and 2) None of this is aimed specifically at you. If it
was I would have mentioned you, or your unit, by name. Now, there’s nothing wrong with
unit pride, and there’s nothing wrong with simply being a part of something. What’s
wrong is when you don’t work to improve it, to make things better within your unit for
yourself and your friends. Think about it before you scream at us; however, if you’re
going to scream, anyway, we’ll be happy to read your emails and listen to the various
ways units can be, and are, run and would love to integrate the larger whole to make our
unit and, hopefully, yours a better place to come and play.
Oh, and my opinions, goals and vision are not, necessarily, those of Argent Fire
or anyone other than myself who works on this E-Zine. Thank you for blasting no one
other than me with what you think about dear old mom or my ex-wife.
~The Wolf
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BATTLETALES
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(**) 1 Cavaliers(Contract History - Contract 3) - Story - Argent Fire - One of the battles for Fallanin II(03 and
04.3011; Fed. Suns contract; Marik and Kurita general combat and defense campaign; Hamal main base with
77th Tactical 'Mech Battalion on both Fallanin II and Hamal; 1 battle campaign with 17 separate engagements
on Fallanin II for this story; 3 'mechs salvage qual. and 2 'mechs destroyed, one MechWarrior lost, the other
dispossessed; plagued with weapon and equipment malfunctions; cut-to awards ceremony of Fallanin II on
Jan. 3, 3011). Of 1 huge battle campaign performed on Fallanin II, as well as the defense of Hamal against
Marik's 8th Shootsisneers, over the course of thistwenty-five month contract, the Cavaliers were actually
involved in 17 separate engagements. All of these battles were wins, although at great cost to the Cavaliers
and greater cost to the enemy. 9 'mechs overall were reduced to Salvage quality, and eventu
a lly brought
back to full strength. 43 'mechs were lost in the fighting, and the unit was plagued with equipment and
weapon malfunctions. The Prince restored 27 'mechs and released Wolf's Cavaliers from its' contract. The
Cavaliers liberated 180,000 C-Bills worth of special equipment and supplies for itself, with a net gain of
somewhere around 125 million C-Bills worth of 'mechs, manpower, techs, and equipment. It's good to be the
king.
“Dragon vs. PPC”
Part 1
By Paul L. Emerson
aka The Wolf
th
General Assembly Area, 77 TMB Fellanin Command
Yamashita World Forest Preserve, Vilnius Mountains, Fellanin II, Draconis Combine
March 07, 3011, Early Morning
Major Jeremiah Wolf stood over the maps laid carefully on the table, his son
David Wolf to his left and Walter Barrett to his right, both Senior Lieutenants, but the
maps would not come into focus for him. Rather, he simply stood and stared through his
light brown eyes and the small wisp of slowly graying hair, all that were in the way of him
seeing the maps more clearly. That, and the huge coffee mug he presently held just
beneath his nose, hoping the pungency of the coffee would wake him up. Four-thirty
didn’t come as easy to him now as it once had; 47 years of age tended to bring that to a
man. Even God rested on the seventh day, but it seemed Jerry Wolf never would.
Senior Lieutenant Wolf looked at his father quizzically, nearly smiling widely as he
watched his ‘old man’ sway back and forth. Of course, David was 22 years old and had
been in the game for quite some time himself, so four-thirty wasn’t treating him well,
either. Senior Lieutenant Walter Barrett, even at the age of forty-two, seemed to be the
only standing at the table ready to go; of course, he always seemed to have enough
energy to be up all the time, but that was no excuse. It was far too early to be chipper.
David stood about five-foot-eleven inches tall and filled every bit of it with wide shoulders
and a barrel chest, unlike his father who was nearly gaunt, any more. The successor to
The Wolf, whenever his old man would finally give up the ghost, had sandy brown hair
and almond eyes like his mother and the square chin his grandfather, Gavin Alexander
Wolf, had given him. David stood there waiting for his dad to moan, to say or do
something, but the old man just seemed to wobble where he was, ignoring his chiefs and
trying hard to take in enough coffee odor to wake himself up.
Walter Barrett, on the other hand, stood and studied the map, looking up at The
Wolf ONLY when it seemed the old man, only five years his senior, was going to go over.
He couldn’t figure out why he seemed to be so spry, so full of energy, when the old man
and his son, half Barrett’s age, couldn’t seem to muster enough energy for a full smile,
even. Walter filled all of five-foot-eight inches of height and was slender of shoulder and
waste, a rock hard stomach and harder back and leg muscles, seemingly built specifically
for driving ‘mechs, and one could tell about his general health judging only by the way his
old uniform rolled off his shoulders and remained as flat as fabric can until it hit his boots.
The Senior Lieutenant continued to study the map of the local area, the Vilnius Mountains
for thirty kilometers in either direction, all the while his mind labeled approaches and
ambush areas.
Mydron Carris, the unit Top Kick, or First Sergeant, as it were, rolled up the heavy
canvas entrance to the command tent the other men stood in, bringing Walter and David
from their varied revelries and The Wolf startled from his coffee. A little spilled over the
lip of the cup, burning a path down Jerry’s right hand and onto the laminated maps, but
the only indication he gave of the burn was a small grunt and a folding of his eyes
together for the briefest of moments.
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“Would you mind knocking next time, Top?” Jerry asked after another second or
two, and then his voice scratched and had a slightly higher pitch to it than he liked to
hear from himself. Mydron cocked his head to the left, then turned briefly to look at the
canvas before turning back to the table without answering.
“Yeah… sorry, sir, won’t happen again,” First Sergeant Carris smiled slightly and
approached the table, made from ply-board and saw horses acquired from a farm close
th
by, and laid down the file containing the most recent intelligence numbers from the 77
Tactical Mech Battalion HQ.
“And…” The Wolf shook his head impatiently. The forty-nine year old Mydron
Carris’ lip crinkled slightly because, like an old married couple, he knew where his friend
was coming from, particularly this early in the morning.
“Don’t you get out and run in the morning, sir?”
Mydron asked, placing special emphasis on ‘sir’.
Jerry Wolf smiled slightly, but his eyes told a
story of friendly revenge, perhaps to be
taken later.
“Don’t start with me, Carris. I’m
not up to going rounds this
morning. Just tell me what’s
up, and make sure I can
understand it.”
“Roger that, dumb it
down, I get it…” He
stopped when he saw the
desired effect and waited for
the response he knew was
coming as the other two
men in the tent laughed as
quietly as they could, not
trying to wake the rest of the
Cavaliers at the same time.
“You know, Mydron, you
can be replaced by a dog.
You know that, right? And,
why is that important?
Because I can shoot the
dog. Report, please?”
Special emphasis went
into the last word, making
it more an order than a
request. First Sergeant
Carris smiled and caught
the eyes of David and
Walter as he opened the
th
file from 77 HQ and prepared to
report.
“Alright, El-tee Barrett,
where’s map seven-delta?”
Walter reached under the maps
and started to thumb through
them, stopping when he
arrived where he wanted
to be. He slowly drew
the precious map out,
let it roll slightly, then
placed it on top of the stack, away from Major Wolf’s spilt coffee, then looked expectantly
at the top Non-Commissioned Officer in the unit. Mydron was black, bald, and a very
bulky man, with wide shoulders and a larger chest than David, despite the fact he was a
full inch shorter than the Senior Lieutenant. Carris had a very deep voice and piercing
hazel-green eyes which could make special forces people stop in their tracks and step
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back away from the man. His strategic, logistical and tactical skills were second to none
in Jeremiah Wolf’s experience, and that was twenty-eight years; most of that time spent
in each other’s company. Mydron was the ONLY man Jerry Wolf trusted when it came to
many things in the unit, and his retirement, whenever that was going to be, would hail a
new age for the unit as far as her commander was concerned.
“Alright, gentlemen, this is where Colonel Steinem is stationing her Battalion, with
Alpha Company here,” Mydron pointed to the mountain pass labeled Harry, to the south
and east of the Mirhai River which followed the eastern base of the Vilnius Mountains
from North-East to South-South-West for thirty five miles before turning off to the south
and into the South Seas, as they were commonly referred to. “Bravo Company is being
placed on this ridge-line,” labeled Victoria, the ridge-line ran as smooth as could be
asked for, able to support several ‘mechs back-to-back across its spine, for nearly five
kilometers. “And, Charlie Company is set up here,” again Mydron pointed to a mountain
pass, though far larger than Harry, labeled Martin. The pass was nearly a valley, running
between five peaks which kept traffic from surprising anyone from the north or the south.
Indeed, at each of these locations, it would take jump-capable ‘mechs several jumps, a
few hours at least, to get into positions which could disrupt activity being directed in the
obvious defensive directions.
th
th
However, the 77 wasn’t going defensive. The job Wolf’s Cavaliers and the 77
shared was to destroy a small training cadre and their protective units. Wolf’s Cavaliers
wasn’t even, truthfully, necessary here, but Jeremiah Wolf wanted to be in the middle of
the action, to earn his pay as it were, and Colonel Gloria Steinem, commander of the
th
77 , and his immediate boss, agreed to his request, though she pointed out that house
forces would be doing the heavy lifting on this one.
“Alright, what crappy positions did the good Colonel give us to guard, Top?”
“Well, sir, she wants us to remain on the DropShips, actually…” Jerry’s jaw
dropped before Mydron was finished, and the looks on the faces of the other officers
were both confused and curious as to the completion of the orders they were being
handed. Just as Jeremiah Wolf’s jaw began to work again and his throat labored to make
noises of disgust and disbelief, the First Sergeant held up his left hand to silence the
Major and, in his right hand, was the reason why. Jerry stared askance at the paper in
the First Sergeant’s hand and his throat ceased, for the time being, to make noises.
“Here’s the deal, gents,” Mydron continued, “during the night, Colonel Steinem sent a
Recon Lance from her Charlie Company down to look things over, and they were unable
to return until roughly fifteen minutes ago, while you were still shaving and getting your
brew.
“The Lieutenant from the Recon Lance reported to Colonel Steinem while I was
there that unusual levels of activity were taking place.”
“How unusual? What size are we talking about here?” Walter Barrett asked,
mystified.
“About an additional Battalion and some unusual, sir. The Recon El-tee explained
how they reached their destination ahead of schedule, and scouted their way-points, but
then their readings spiked and they went into hiding, shut everything down, and couldn’t
th
get out and back to us until just a few minutes ago. The feeling in the 77 HQ tent is that
this may be the staging area for a larger offensive. This battalion was at the training
cadre grounds down the hill, sir, and it’s believed there may be more units in-system.”
“Okay, so we’re on the DropShips for what reason, again?” Senior Lieutenant
David Montgomery Wolf asked.
th
“Well, David, we’re on the DropShips in case the 77 , once they start their
descent from the mountains, comes under fire from more Draconis Forces than we’re
expecting. If we have word of a new offensive, to be sure, we’ll have to report it to
Davion Command and let them react to it. If this, on the other hand, is just a training
scheduled event then we’ll have a booby prize to take home with us because we’ll have
taken down another Battalion down when we were just supposed to get the training
cadre.” Once Mydron finished his little speech everyone went silent, all contemplating
what to do next, until The Wolf asked,
“So, where would she want us to land to flank this phantom battalion, Mydron?”
Carris opened the folder again and read a little bit before answering,
“El-tee, would you mind bringing out map seven-echo, please?” Walter complied
and, soon, all were able to see the other side of the training academy valley, where
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Mydron took a red grease pencil and marked three locations. “Depending on where an
attack might come from, Jerry, we could land in one of these three spots. That’s her
assessment, though, sir.”
“And what do you feel like, Top?” David asked quietly, knowing the man had
something in mind.
“Sir, I would land Alpha Company right on the bandits, and then your Red Death
Squadron on the side that’s not fixed. The goal here is to keep as many of them alive as
possible, for repatriation and the like, correct?” The other three men nodded, knowing
their orders were to kill the equipment, salvage what could be, and let the pilots go, just
to teach the old snake a lesson. All four men lapsed into silence again, each of them
working their own minds about the situation.
“Well, gentlemen, I’m not one for making plans so concrete they can’t be
changed. I prefer to go with the flow as much as possible. So, that in mind, let’s adjourn
and get ready for the main attack. On the go signal from Colonel Steinem, we’ll mount up
and get ready to go, not until then. When you brief your people, tell them we’re likely to
go in very hot. David,” The Wolf turned to address his son, now, “See this cul-de-sac
right here?” David nodded acknowledgement. “Two things, keep an eye on it, and think
about dropping into the middle of it. If you can keep cover and still have range on the
bad guys, then we’ll do well this day. Capische?”
“Roger that, sir.” David answered in the crispest tone he’d been able to muster all
morning.
“Walter, make sure you and Lisa are ready to break out to flank at all times. If I
give the go signal, you have to be able to disengage whomever you’re fighting and go
where I need you. Clear?” Walter pursed his lips slightly, a sign he had no small amount
of trouble with what he’d just been told to do, but he nodded acknowledgement and
stared at the map some more. “Alright, that’s it, let’s get ready.”
~to be continued
~The Wolf
EVENT CALENDAR
This section of the E-Zine is designed for anyone who would like to post events,
whether of their own making or someone else’s. Personally, I would appreciate a full
months warning for new events which are being scheduled; however, we’ll deal with two
weeks if necessary. Just be forewarned that with such short notice, even a month worth,
since our E-Zine is noted to come out every other month, your event may not be
broadcast through us in time to do any good. However, we may gain enough artists and
writers in the future to make this E-Zine more popular, therefore it will come out faster.
Don’t count on more than one issue per month, however; I simply do not have that kind of
time on my hands.
~The Wolf
November ‘03
__• __Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 2 – Event Calendar & Parting Shot, Publish to Web
January ‘04
__• __Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 3 – Opening Volley, The Grapevine, BattleROMs &
Bio-Feedback
__• __Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 3 – Intel, BattleTales, Event Calendar & Parting
Shot, Publish to Web
__• __AU Web Update
February ‘04
_____AU FM – Wolf’s Cavaliers – Contract 10 – 11; could use some help with this!!!
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 4 – Opening Volley, The Grapevine & BattleROMs
March ‘04
_____AU FM – Equal Opportunity Destroyers – Basics & Contract 12; all work set back
by one month.
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 4 – Bio-Feedback, Intel & BattleTales
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 4 – Event Calendar & Parting Shot, Publish to Web
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April ‘04
_____AU FM – Equal Opportunity Destroyers – Contract 13
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 5 – Opening Volley, The Grapevine, BattleROMs &
Bio-Feedback
_____AU Web Update
May ‘04
_____AU FM – Equal Opportunity Destroyers – Contract 14 and the Waterworld Tragedy
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 5 – Intel, BattleTales, Event Calendar & Parting
Shot, Publish to Web
_____AU Stage 3: Recruiting, Trials, Command Structure, Unit Structure and League
Hunting completed; begin combat operations in all Regiments
_____MW: DA Web Site Construction(hopefully a kit will be available by now)
June ‘04
_____AU FM – Shadow Blade – Basics & Contract 15 – 16
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 6 – Opening Volley, The Grapevine, BattleROMs &
Bio-Feedback
July ‘04
_____AU FM – Shadow Blade – Contract 17 – 18
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 6 – Intel, BattleTales, Event Calendar & Parting
Shot, Publish to Web
August ‘04
_____AU FM – Armageddon Unlimited – Basics & Contract 19
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 7 – Opening Volley, The Grapevine, BattleROMs &
Bio-Feedback
September ‘04
_____AU FM – Armageddon Unlimited – Contract 20 – 21
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 7 – Intel, BattleTales, Event Calendar & Parting
Shot, Publish to Web
October ‘04
_____AU FM – Armageddon Unlimited – Contract 22 – 23
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 8 – Opening Volley, The Grapevine, BattleROMs &
Bio-Feedback
_____Begin Construction of AMG/ MFOL League and Unit Repository
_____Brand Spankin’ New BattleTech To-Do List including Other Projects…, below
November ‘04
_____AU FM – Current Events and Introduction to Dark Age unit
_____AU FM Completion of proofing, art insertion(?), making sure ALL AU resources
have been tapped for completion of this manual, and selling to WizKids/ FanPro for
Classic BattleTech
_____Argent Fire – Volume 1, Issue 8 – Intel, BattleTales, Event Calendar & Parting
Shot, Publish to Web
Other Projects on my Mind for BattleTech
MechWarrior: Dark Age RPG (Including: Introduction & Character Generation,
Skill Use, Personal & ‘Mech Combat Rules and Examples, Gear & Weapons Availability &
Acquisition, GameMasters Section & Drama Rules, Eventualities, etc.)
You’re all more than welcome to contribute to the above list and AF will endeavor
to make sure your information is put out to the rest of the community in a timely manner.
~The Wolf
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PARTING SHOT
Volume I , I ssue 3
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Well, I am writing this before I come up with a piece of fiction for BattleTales, to
close out this issue of the magazine. Make sure you take a look at the new Submission
Guidelines below if you’re interested in writing anything for Argent Fire, drawing art, etc.
We can use all manner of articles, stories and art, as long as it’s tasteful and has to do
with the BattleTech universe in general.
I suppose this is goodbye for another month or two, until I have enough material
to produce a fourth issue of this E-Zine. Truth be told, I’ve written almost all of this in a
single day, and that’s disappointing; after all, I normally have the ability to write single
articles over the course of several days. Unfortunately, for some reason, this time I had
to write it all at once, save of course BattleTales. Now, there’s more than meets the eye
when it comes to Argent Fire, but I haven’t had the gumption or the ability to market it
very widely yet. I’m hoping I can begin doing that next weekend, and I’ll be able to write
a story for BattleTales over the course of this coming week. However, as sporadic as life
has been recently, I am not certain what will happen on the verge of tomorrow.
Next Issue we have an interview with Jordan Weisman concerning the 20year anniversary of BattleTech, what it will hail for the future, and how long it’ll be
around. Look for that, folks, the interview email is already in to the Father of
BattleTech himself. I will also try and get an interview out of the programmers, creators,
and/or admins of MECH.US for y’all and, hopefully, it will be some very good reading.
I’ll be honest with you, though, that I would really like to see all manner of articles
in this E-Zine, from maps and scenarios, to community happenings, including up and
coming conventions and on-line events, as well as articles and stories written about those
conventions and events. Bring it on, like I’ve said multiple times now, we can take it.
This next Issue I hope to complete two more MOD and/or League interviews for your
reading pleasure and, over the next several issues I hope to intersperse articles from the
original BattleTec E-Zine. Those guys worked every bit as hard as I’m working now, and
I’m trying to enlist their aid and that of other BattleTech E-Zine writers, in general, to
become staff writers for Argent Fire. If we can work together and we have a good
marketing department, as well as the resource of a mailing list, then we should be able to
do well and keep you informed on the up and coming as well as the going and the gone.
I suppose that’ll be it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed the interviews and the story
I’ll be writing this coming week; if you don’t, come up with better, hehe. Oh, and don’t
forget to subscribe to the new mailing list by sending your email address and the name
you want to go by to [email protected]. Don’t forget, also, you can find this
information also posted at http://www.wolvesau.net/ArgentFire.
Happy hunting, MechWarriors and Mech Commanders.
~The Wolf
NEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Okay, writing for AF is not going to be impossible. In fact, it should be easier than
a lot of other magazines.
Art – All art must be BattleTech-related and may be of ‘mechs, personnel(in
uniforms preferably), combat art and anything else BattleTech-related. Battlefields and
pictures from conventions and screenshots from special events may also be included.
Once you submit your art it becomes AF property and may be used and modified as we
see fit; and paying you is NOT an option, as we simply will NOT be able to afford to pay
you for your hard work except in recognition for other publishers. We also own the art
you submit to us because it keeps legal disputes down; we’ve told you ahead of time,
what’s the issue? Don’t let that prevent you from putting art with us, though; your name
will be in the credits for the magazine, along with the page and name of the work for
where it’s been put.
Articles – You may write articles and fiction(BattleTech preferably) of any size for
the time being, and you may write and submit as many articles as you want. No
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universe, please? You may include your art, diagrams, screenshots, etc. Please use
proper spelling(spell checker is a wonderful function) and punctuation, sentence
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once you submit anything to us it becomes AF property and may be used and modified as
we see fit. Also, don’t let those rules keep you from submitting to or enjoying this E-Zine.
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
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Once again, we can’t pay you for your work because we take no money for this at all, and
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Whatever you submit to this E-Zine, which is used,
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be careful. The same thing goes for us who are the
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more right or true than anything anyone else would say or
believe. The primary writers of this E-Zine are Christian,
but we will strive to maintain your dignity and allow you
your opinion and right to choose.
For those of you who are worried about copyright
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us steps over the line, we simply will not publish it in this
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please contact us, being respectful and showing common
decency, and we will gladly change or delete the offending
article or work of art and re-publish the E-Zine. However, it
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our readership know that some stingy company has
become tight-lipped about something they don’t want us to
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If an article does step over the line and we catch it
before we publish it, we will work with the author(s) or artist(s) to rectify the situation. As
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Further, none of this is designed as a challenge to any kind of copyright or trademark so,
before you go and try to sue me, or any other member of the AF team(whoever they may
be), look at it from a positive marketing perspective and give us a taste of something the
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If you want something removed or altered, give us the skinny(tell us why we
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them be surprised, but we will release the submission after the fact if there is a fact to be
after. The readership of this E-Zine loves BattleTech, or games/ entertainment involving
and related to mecha and BattleMechs, and alienating them through making us change
an article for some stingy reason would be bad for your profit margin.
Advertisements – We have no problem hosting advertisements for units, leagues
or even the manufacturers of the games we play. However, we don’t pay for submissions
and we will only accept donations, not contracted payment of any advertisements. This
does mean that ads here are free, but we will limit ad space available whether you decide
to donate or not. When submitting an ad, please make sure you make a full-page ad(if
you feel that’s necessary – see our ad toward the back for AU), a half-page ad, and a
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With your submissions, please make sure you have a legitimate email address so
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I do hope you enjoy this E-Zine, but I also hope you don’t expect it to come out
too often. Good luck in all your battles, be gentle with your allies, harsh with your
enemies, and respectful to those in power above you.
~The Wolf
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
ADVERTISEMENTS
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AR GENT F I R E
Volume I , I ssue 3
UNIT/RESOURCE LISTINGS
This is the place we list all of the unit web
pages in existence. If you have a web page to submit
here, please feel free to email them to
[email protected] and we’ll get you taken care
of by the next issue.
Note that links are listed by category and then
alphabetically. If you have a gaming unit, for
instance, your unit will be listed in Unit Listings
towards the end of these links, and then
alphabetically by the name of your unit. No one gets
any special privileges for placement, not even the
guys who produce these games.
020104/ 020168
Maps & Missions
Alpha Strike – Produce MechWarrior maps and
missions
http://www.alpha-strike.net/
MercStorm – Community based support for
MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries
http://www.mercstorm.com/
News & Reviews
BattleTech HQ
http://www.angelfire.com/games/battletechHQ/
BattleTech Boards/PbEM/MechWarrior
BattleTech Play by E-Mail(in German)
BattleTech News & Reviews
Dragon’s Hobbies - BattleTechnical
http://www.antishaft.com/battletech/
BattleTech Universe.org
http://www.lordsofthebattlefield.com/
http://btechnewsandreview.tripod.com/
http://btpbem.kell-hounds.de/
BattleTech – Until Your Cannon Glows
http://www.dragonshobbies.com/battletechnical/
Lords of the Battlefield
http://www.battletechuniverse.org/index1.php
DropShip Command – Maps and Missions,
News and Reviews and Forums area
http://www.dropshipcommand.com/
The Task Force
Galleries
Dak’s BattleTech Miniatures Gallery
http://atlas7d.freeservers.com/
http://www.luckshire.com/flealord/dakgallery/DakGall
eryHome.htm
Leagues
Inner Sphere Wars – A MechWarrior 4 Mod
http://www.comstarterminal.com
Net BattleTech
http://www.netbattletech.com/
Mech Commander
Mech Lab – Mech Commander 2
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~mechcommander
MechWarrior: Dark Age
MechXF – A wonderful resource for Dark Age
http://www.mektek.net/~mechxf/
http://www.texmech.net/
Personal Pages
Panzerfaust 150’s BattleTech Web Home
Froggie’s BattleTech Page
http://www.ajfroggie.com/battletech/
Producers
Archer’s Miniatures
http://www.archersminiatures.com/
BattleCorps – A pay to read fiction site for
Classic BattleTech
http://www.battlecorps.com
BattleTech Mod Productions – Document
various mods which are coming out for Tech
http://www.battletechmodproductions.com
Custom Wooden Mechs
http://spyder297.tripod.com/customwoodenmechs/id1
7.html
Fantasy Productions – Producers of Classic
BattleTech
http://www.classicbattletech.com
Inner Sphere Wars – A MechWarrior 4 Mod
http://www.comstarterminal.com
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AR GENT F I R E
Mecha Entertainment – A Portal site and
Volume I , I ssue 3
BattleTech forums area; producers of BattleTech
fun
http://www.mechaentertainment.com/
MechJock
Unit Listings: Houses
Davion Heavy Guards
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http://www.geocities.com/davionheavyguards_2000/D
HG_Opening.html
Headhunters of Davion
http://www.mechjock.com/
WizKids Games, LLC – Producers of
MechWarrior: Dark Age
http://www.wizkidsgames.com/mwdarkage/
Tech Readouts & Source Pages
Chaos March
http://www.hhod.com/main/index.htm
Unit Listings: Mercenaries
Armageddon Unlimited Primary Web Site
http://www.wolvesau.net
Christian Men Online(CMO) – A Christian
http://www.chaosmarch.com/
Mercenaries group
http://www.icehouse.net/cmonline
http://www.sanctum.com/surfers/btech/
Death Dealer Mercs
http://www.solaris7.net/battlenet/
Skye Rangers Primary Web Site – A
Wolverine’s BattleTech Home Page
BattleNet(in Spanish)
http://216.202.36.201/
MechWarrior Game Club
http://www.skye-rangers.net
Strider’s Strikers
http://www.stridersstrikers.com/
ARGENT FIRE © 2004 ARGENT FIRE E-ZINE
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